After Wednesday’s 80-60 loss to top-ranked Purdue, Penn State coach Micah Shrewsberry started his post-game press conference by immediately giving Purdue, 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey and coach Matt Painter credit.
“Best team in the country, best player in the county, best coach in the country,” was Shrewsberry’s opening statement.
Shrewsberry was an assistant at Purdue from 2011-13 and again from 2019-21. He recruited some of Purdue’s current players, such as Mason Gillis, who had a career-high 29 points on nine 3-pointers.
Shrewsberry also helped oversee the development of some of Purdue’s current squad and noticed something different about this year’s group. He sees a team that gels, which is why it’s the top-ranked team in the country. Unsurprisingly, he also thinks Edey is the key.
“I think they fit really well together,” Shrewsberry said. “I think the other guys on the floor know how good Zach is because he is playing a lot more, and they give him the ball, and that makes them better. They don’t make them better by throwing it to him; they get better by them. He makes them better by scoring and then other guys are getting open on handoffs and pick and roll.”
Shrewsberry also talked about building a new tradition and moving forward at Penn State and said he didn’t care about the past shortcomings of Penn State basketball.
“I’ve only been here for two years, not even the full two years yet, and people talk about Penn State basketball and its history, but I don’t really care about that history,” Shrewsberry said. “It doesn’t matter to me one bit; all I care about is what we’re doing right now. At the beginning of the year, when they said you don’t have what it takes, or Penn State doesn’t have what it takes, and history says that Penn State history is not going to the NCAA tournament, I don’t care. I am going to will these guys to the NCAA tournament. Jalen Pickett is going to will us to the NCAA tournament; Seth Lundy, Andrew Funk, all those dudes. We have a lot of games left, and we are going to do whatever the hell it takes to get to the NCAA tournament.”
The journey towards March Madness continues Sunday afternoon in Nebraska. Tipoff is scheduled for 4:30.
Twitter: @bwalkerdadon
